by Aaron Hubble
There was a tremendous roar and flash of light. He heard screaming and groaning coming from the men. A hand grabbed his arm and began pulling him in the opposite direction.
“Quick!” Luana said.
Malone scrambled after her, lifting the crying Safiya in his arms. He looked back and saw the men sprawled on the carpet as smoke billowed out of a silver canister that lay in the middle of them.
“What was that?” he yelled after Luana.
“It was a phosphorus grenade. Big noise, big flash and then smoke to give us some cover. It won’t keep them down for long though, but it will give us a little time.”
They sprinted down the hall when alarms began to sound through the building. Malone swore. The whole building was on alert now. His mind was moving fast, trying to come up with a plan when he remembered the building schematics they’d gotten from Luana’s contact. There was a set of emergency stairs at the end of the corridor.
“Follow me,” he said to Luana. “I think I have an idea.”
The corridor angled to the right and at its end was a door. Malone pushed through to a set of stairs that led up and down.
“Let’s go down. There are maintenance tunnels under this building. Maybe we can find a spot to hide for a while and then make our way out and to the rendezvous point with Abram.”
Luana reached out and gripped his shoulder. “Listen to me. We can’t do that. We’ve stolen EC property.” She glanced at the two girls. Tears slid down their faces, but they’d managed to keep their composure. “They won’t stop looking. The EC knows we can’t get off this planet without them knowing. If they don’t detect anything leaving the surface, they’ll continue to hunt until they find us. They’ll lock this place down and root us out.”
Malone slammed his fist into the wall. “What do we do?”
Luana looked into his eyes. In them, he saw what he did not feel. Hope. She pushed a lock of sweaty white hair out of her eyes. “Do you trust me?”
Fear and indecision gripped him. This was what it all came down to. Trust. Could he trust Luana?
Galila leaned into him and laid her head against his chest. Malone looked down and wrapped an arm around his daughter as she shook. It hit him in the face. This was why he could trust Luana. She clutched Safiya close to her, trying to comfort the little one. She’d given up everything for these girls.
That was why he could trust her. She wasn’t lying about that. There was no faking the feelings she had for the girls and if she wasn’t faking that, then maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t lying about the way she felt about Malone.
He stared into her eyes and saw her drive and determination. She was so strong and capable. More than he was. This was what she was trained for and this was her arena. He would be a fool to fight against her.
He nodded. “Okay. I trust you. Lead the way.”
She exhaled and flashed him a small smile before returning her focus to what she needed to do. “We go up.” Luana turned and began pulling Safiya after her.
“What? That’s exactly where they want us to go. They’re pushing us that way.”
“So, we’ll give them exactly what they want. There’s no one up there yet, they’re all coming up after us. I’ll send a message to Abram and he can pick us up there.” She looked at him again and smiled. “Trust me.”
Malone shook his head and blew out a long breath. “Right behind you.”
He grabbed Galila’s hand and bent down to whisper in her ear. “Okay. We need to hurry up a bunch of steps. Do you think you can do that?”
The girl nodded. “I think I can.”
“Good. If you get tired, you let me know and I’ll give you a piggy back ride. You’re not too old for those, are you?”
She smiled. “None of my friends are here to see me, so it should be okay.”
He pulled her behind him and they moved into the stairwell. The alarms blared around them at a deafening level. Emergency lights bathed the stairwell in red light. After a flight of stairs, Safiya was beginning to lag, her short legs unable to keep up with the pace they needed to get to the roof.
Malone let go of Galila’s hand. “Sorry, kid. Your sister needs that piggyback ride more than you. Go up ahead of me right behind your mom.” Galila nodded and jogged up several steps as Malone swooped in and grabbed Safiya. He swung her around to his back.
“Hang on, darling,” he said to her over the alarms.
She wrapped her small arms and legs around him and Malone hurried after Luana and Galila.
Several more flights later, his legs were really beginning to tire. He could see that Galila was struggling. Luana was encouraging her forward.
“Come on, baby,” Luana said. “There’s only one more flight before we’re on the roof and then I promise we’ll get out of this.”
Galila nodded, leaning against the hand rail for support. They twisted around one more flight of stairs and then came to a door set into the concrete wall. There was a keypad next to the door, but no handle.
Luana pulled several small wires from the bracelet she was wearing and plugged them into the side of the panel. She tapped out several commands on the keypad and waited. To Malone, the few seconds they stood idle in the stairwell seemed to stretch on forever. The keypad lit up green and the door clicked. Luana pushed it open and Malone felt a heady rush of natural air sweep into the stairwell. It felt glorious.
He stepped out into the night. The door closed, blocking out the sound of the alarms. It was almost silent up on the roof and he was grateful. If he didn’t know that a whole group of bloodthirsty EC commandos was on the way up, he could almost enjoy this little respite. Almost.
“To the edge,” Luana directed them.
Bright search lights lit up the top of the building. Safiya screamed into his ear. Malone squinted his eyes against the bright glare.
A hovering aircraft had ascended from under the building’s edge.
“Halt. Remain where you are at or we’ll shoot.”
They froze and he heard Luana curse under her breath. Again, they’d been so close. Malone felt all his energy, all his hope drain out of him. This was what defeat felt like. Total and utter defeat.
The stairwell door behind them burst open and the commandos filed out, pushing them closer to the edge of the building. He took several more steps backward and bumped against the parapet wall.
Ely Ekene, the man who’d taken his daughters away from him, stepped forward.
“Hello, Mr. Kay. I think you have something that belongs to me.”
Ekene holstered his pistol and held up his hands. “No one needs to get hurt. We can work this out without weapons.”
“Just let us go,” Luana said. “All we want is our girls.”
Ekene put his hands on his hips. “That would have been possible back at the farm if you’d just given us the taxes you owed. Now, the situation is a little different. The EC has a reputation to uphold and if we let you out of here with your girls, we’ll look weak. Others will feel like they can stand up to us and complicate things. We don’t like complicated. Fear is one of our most valuable weapons. Without it, my job becomes infinitely more difficult. So, with that in mind, I need you to hand over the girls.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Malone said.
“It is. I’ve taken a liking to that little girl of yours and I plan to have her while you lay dying on this roof.” Ekene pulled his gun from his holster once again. He leveled it at Malone. “I might take your wife as well.” His eyes flicked to Luana. “She’ll do.”
Malone pushed the girls behind him. Luana pressed against his side. He felt strength in having her near him. Malone looked at Luana and half smiled. She returned the smile.
“Trust me,” she whispered.
From behind them, came a roar of engines and Malone was almost knocked forward in the wash of air. The shuttle rose up from the trees and lit the night with weapons fire. The EC hovercraft on the other side of the building exploded in flames and spun out of
sight. The men on the roof scattered. Malone instinctively dropped to his knees and pulled Safiya down next to him. Luana yelled into his ear.
“Come on, get up.” She offered her hand and pulled him to his feet.
“What are we doing?” he yelled at her.
She stepped up on the parapet wall, pulling Galila after her. She then offered him her hand. “We’re getting out of here, but we need to jump into the shuttle.”
Malone looked down and Abram had gotten as close to the building as he could, and then angled the craft so that the side door was open and pointing at them.
“Jump? Down? Like off the edge of the roof?”
Abram appeared at the door, motioning for them to jump. It was only a ten-foot drop, but so much could go wrong. Luana tossed Galila to Abram and then jumped after her. They both made it safely.
Malone looked Safiya in the eyes. “Okay, baby, I need you to be brave and jump to Mom. Can you do that?” She nodded and Malone dropped the girl down to the waiting arms of Luana. He closed his eyes.
Strong hands gripped his legs and pulled him off the wall. He landed hard on the roof. Rolling over, he stared into Ekene’s face. Ekene’s fist slammed into Malone’s head over and over.
“Not this time, Kay. You’re not going to get out of this one.”
He pointed his pistol at Malone’s forehead and smiled.
Blood splattered Malone’s face. Ekene’s smile disappeared and blood ran out of a hole in his forehead. He slumped forward onto Malone who scrambled out from underneath him and climbed back up on the parapet wall. Bullets flew around him. The shuttle ascended several feet, and he saw Luana standing in the open doorway with a pistol in her hand.
“You have to jump, Malone! We can’t wait any longer!”
He closed his eyes and pushed off the wall with all the strength in his legs. His feet hit the metal floor of the shuttle and he rolled to the back of the craft.
Bullets pinged off the hull. Malone was thrown to the back of the shuttle as Abram accelerated away from the building and then angled the ship upwards toward the stars.
Malone picked himself off the floor, staggered toward the cockpit and into the co-pilot’s chair.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Abram grinned as his hands danced across the controls. “You did hold me up at gunpoint.”
Malone looked at the sensor screen. “Are we going to have trouble getting out of here?”
“Is Mars red? Hell yeah, we’re going to have trouble, but your wife’s friends put a few surprises in this little ship. I’d put our chances of getting away with this at a little better than half.”
“Fifty percent! That’s the best you can give us?”
“It’s probably more like twenty-five, but I didn’t want to worry you.”
Malone stared at the man and then buckled the safety harness over his shoulders.
“Good call,” Abram said.
Malone looked back through the shuttle and saw that Luana had strapped the girls into seats and was trying her best to comfort them.
The comm came to life. “Shuttle Dallas. You’re in possession of Europa Collective property and two fugitives. Return plantside or we’ll shoot you out—”
Abram cut the audio. “Pompous prick,” he said. He nodded toward the controls in front of Malone. “Grab ahold of those. You’re in control of the weapons. You don’t need to necessarily hit anything, although that would be nice, just make it hard for them until we can get out of atmosphere and make the jump to light speed.”
Warning alarms went off across the sensor screen. “And here they come. Looks like three of them.”
“What do I do?” Malone said.
“Put on the targeting visor and move the control in front of you until you can get them lined up in the cross hairs. Then pull the trigger like mad and don’t stop until I tell you.”
“Are you expecting me to hit anything?” Malone said, pulling the visor down over his eyes.
“It would be nice, but I’m really just hoping you can cause enough havoc to give us enough time to reach the rendezvous point. Then we can jump out of here and be in bed before story time.”
“Why can’t we jump right now?”
Abram shook his head as several explosions rattled the shuttle. “Quantum fold suppressors. Unless we have the right equipment, we can’t jump while in Collective space. We’ve got to get beyond them.”
“How long will that take?”
“Longer than we have.”
Under the visor, Malone saw the virtual targeting matrix spread out in front of him. He felt like he was strapped into a chair perched on top of the shuttle. His actual physical hand was wrapped around the trigger mechanism.
Like a vulture, the Collective fighter dropped down from above. Malone jerked his head upwards, fixing his eyes on the middle of the fighter. The ships weapons matched the movement of his head, and he pulled the trigger.
Streaks of blue energy flew toward the fighter, but it rolled and dodged his attempts to bring it down.
He cursed as two more ships formed up behind the shuttle.
Following Abrams instructions, he squeezed the trigger and sprayed laser fire in a wide arc behind the shuttle, hoping to disperse their pursuers. The fighters peeled off in different directions and then reformed slightly to the left. Malone swung his head and fired some more.
The ships continued to dodge easily. He couldn’t seem to catch them, but he was keeping them occupied.
One of the fighters’ cannons glowed a brilliant orange and sent a bolt of energy toward the shuttle. In the virtual world, it looked like it was headed straight toward his position on the top of the shuttle.
He cried out and covered his eyes.
The shuttle dropped suddenly, and the energy passed over him.
“Quit crying, you baby,” Abram growled. “The only way it hurts you is if it actually hits the ship.”
Malone recovered and resumed harassing the Collective fighters. Frustration grew as he continually missed. It was like trying to swat a fly with a chopstick.
One of the fighters accelerated and moved straight toward them. Malone started firing. The fighter banked hard to the right. Determined to bring it down, he followed, finger squeezing the trigger the whole time.
In his peripheral vision, Malone saw the other two fighters accelerate and bear down on the shuttle. It had been a feint on the first ship’s part. A ploy to draw his fire and give his squad mates a few precious seconds in which to incinerate them.
Malone swung back as quick as he could. His heart stopped. He was going to be too late.
Anger took over his fear.
Anger at the Collective for taking his girls.
Anger at God for allowing something like this to happen.
Anger at himself for not being strong enough or skilled enough to get everyone home.
He’d let them down again and he would die with that final thought in his mind.
The ships closed fast, dodging his laser. They opened fire. Abram rolled, but Malone could see they would be caught in the crossfire eventually. He resigned himself to the fact he was going to die.
Malone closed his eyes, but kept his finger on the trigger.
He breathed a silent apology to his family and waited for the inevitable.
A large explosion shook the space around him.
He opened his eyes and saw debris trailing behind the shuttle. Only one fighter remained behind them. A nanosecond later, it too erupted in a ball of fire. What was left tumbled through the vacuum.
Malone blinked, trying to understand what had happened. A large object sailed over him. He looked up and saw four wedge shaped fighters fly past, and then bank around and take up positions on either side of them.
He ripped off the VR visor and stared at Abram. “What just happened?”
“Your wife’s friends showed up just in time. Probably knew you were a lousy shot. I guess we were close enough to the border of Coll
ective space they thought they could risk getting us out. My feeling is, they really want Luana and were willing to break some rules to get her.”
Malone slumped in his chair and tossed the visor on the panel in front of him. He covered his face with his hands and blew out a long breath. Abram punched him in the shoulder.
“Hey, you did good, dad. Now, why don’t you go catch up with your family.”
Malone unbuckled his harness and slapped Abram on the back as he passed the old pilot. Rushing into the passenger compartment, he saw Luana fussing over the girls. Checking to see if they were alright.
Safiya jumped out of her chair and ran toward him. He scooped her up and wrapped his arms around her little body, holding her close.
A hug was a simple thing, but he knew it was something he would never take for granted again.
“Is it over, Daddy?”
“It is, jumping bean. Let’s go find a home.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Somewhere between dreaming and waking, Malone rolled over and reached out for Luana. The place where she should have been was empty. It took a moment to register her absence in his half-awake mind. Concern and curiosity finally pushed him fully awake. He sat up in the bed.
Wiping sleep out of his eyes, he stood and pushed back the curtains to look out the cabin window. Pale blue moonlight reflected off the gently rolling ocean waves, leaving a trail of light from the curved horizon until the water met the pink sand.
Malone inhaled a deep breath of the salty ocean air.
It smelled like peace. It smelled like freedom and family.
He smiled. The last three weeks had been nothing short of a gift after what they had just gone through.
They’d taken up residence in Abram’s little cabin after their escape from Vina, taking a circuitous route to this out of the way paradise in order to shake any pursuit from the Collective. The primarily ocean planet of Poinciana was far from EC space and sparsely inhabited. Mostly because the only land available were on isolated islands scattered across the globe.
Malone shook his head. It was hard to believe that the crazy, old pilot had a cozy little cabin tucked away in the middle of nowhere. There was so much about Abram he didn’t know. Most likely, they’d only scratched the surface of what the old man had to offer. He was truly a blessing wrapped in a crusty exterior, and Malone was more than happy to claim him as a friend now.